Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson three or four on the inquiry how do we uncover the lived experience of those ruled by Empire in Africa? Today's lesson title is Things Fall Apart, and I'll give you a moment to write that now.

For today's lesson, you'll need a pen something to write on, and you also need to make sure that wherever you are, you're free from any distractions.

So take a moment to write down the title.

Then I'll introduce myself and explain to you why we've chosen that title for today's lesson.

Hello, it's me again Mr Hewitt Well done for coming back to this inquiry.

Last lesson you took on the challenging and important task of analysing those first hand accounts of life under colonialism.

This lesson, we'll be continuing with this focus, but also considering how novels and other broader sources might help us to get a sense of what lived experience under Empire may have been like.

Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond.

So begins Chinua Achebe's master piece novel, 'Things fall apart.

' Which imagines the early experiences of those facing Empire in Nigeria.

Achebe's book begins with a poem by Yeats 'Turning and Turning in the widening gyre.

' The Falcon cannot hear the falconer, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold near anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Indeed, this is how Achebe pictures the early experiences of colonialism.

the complete breakdown in social political and cultural structures, which happens as a result of European arrival.

The master peace and success of Achebe's novel is to portray African communities as complex and three dimensional as they were.

And to give a voice to those communities, who are often unable to record their thoughts or ignored by the colonialists at that time.

Achebe was born in 1930, many years after the novel is set, but he lived nonetheless in colonial Nigeria.

And indeed the novel was published before Nigeria won its independence from Britain.

Achebe knew the history of his people well, and we can use extracts such as these from Things Fall Apart, even as historians to get a better understanding of the past, so long as we read carefully and aware of the fact that they are ultimately dramatisations.

We're going to take a look at one such extract in a moment.

I'll get my head out of the way so that you can see this map of Nigeria within the continent of Africa better.

Nigeria is a West African nation, which has grown enormously since the end of colonisation.

When colonials arrived in the region, it was not one country, the diverse range of peoples with different cultural and religious backgrounds.

Part of the experience of colonialism, was to force rather diverse groups of people into one artificial state under European rule.

Another feature of the experience of colonialism was cultural imperialism.

This is a picture of a missionary in an African village in the 19th century.

Missionaries were white Europeans, who believed that African culture was inferior to white European culture.

And then to be taught Christianity and white values was important.

Missionaries were not necessarily violent people, but their actions did cause destabilisation and the breakdown of family units for example, when children started to have entirely different value systems to adults, because they had learned Christianity from white missionaries.

Rudyard Kipling, the famous English poet and staunch imperialist, described this sort of cultural imperialism as the white man's burden.

He imagined like many other colonialists, that white people had a duty to teach Africans their values.

Today, this seems rather arrogant, imposing, and desensitising, or even insensitive to us.

And indeed it was then, however, cultural imperialism was another feature of the experience of living on the Empire.

This extract from Achebe's novel, imagines the impact of the arrival of missionaries in a Nigerian village.

The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir.

When they had gathered the white man began to speak to them.

He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone.

When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta, they broke down into derisive laughter.

One morning, Okonkwo's cousin Amikwu, was passing the church, when he saw Nwoye Okonkwo's son among the Christians.

He was greatly surprised and when he got home, he went straight to a quote unquote hut and told him.

It was late afternoon before Nwoye returned.

'Where have you been?' Okonkwo stammered.

'Answer me before I kill you.

' I want you to read the extract again and look at the questions on the left.

What can we uncover from this extract about the experience of living under Empire? Particularly that of cultural imperialism in the earliest Empire.

Think also when was this extract written? Who wrote it? And do we have to be careful when using this extract as a historian? Does the fact that this extract is from a novel limit the extent to which we can use it? Pause the video, jot down your thoughts and when you're ready, unpause the video and I'll share some of our answers with you.

Fantastic job, you're quite right.

The early experiences of Empire were often confusing and distressing.

They lead to a breakdown in social structures and families as African cultures came under attack.

Achebe of course didn't live at the time described in the extract, but he knew colonial Nigeria well, having been born and growing up there.

And he based his book on his deep and meaningful understanding of these cultures.

Therefore, whilst we have to be aware that it's not technically a historical source, we can also appreciate its utility as historians when uncovering the experiences of those under Empire.

I want to turn now to the African nation of Namibia, in the South of the continent.

Here we see Namibia on a map.

Namibia faced colonialism in particular from the German Empire, which was much smaller, but equally as vicious as other European Empires in the region.

This is Hendrik Witboi, also known as Nanseeb Gaib, which roughly translates into English as one who fights in the long grass.

Witbooi was a guerilla fighter.

Somebody who fought against German imperialism, and tried to keep people living in Namibia and the different chieftains free from colonial rule.

Like so many Witbooi was unsuccessful, but he's become a contemporary hero for Namibians because of his fight against colonialism.

In this extract that boy writes to a rival, begging him to stop fighting within the African communities.

So that together they can focus on resisting white rule.

You think you will retain your independent chieftainship after I have been destroyed, but my dear Kaptein chieftain he is using the German word there because already German colonialism started to influence the way Africans communicated.

You will eternally regret your action in having handed over to the white man, the right to govern your country.

This war between us is not nearly as heavy a burden, as you seem to have thought when you did this momentous thing.

What Witbooi boy is saying is that rival chiefs should not believe promises from the white people about being able to keep their chieftainships should they help defeat individuals like Witbooi.

And instead should come together to resist colonialism.

Read the extract again and think about those two points on the left.

What can we uncover from Witbooi's warning about reality living under Empire? Think also just the fact that this source was communicated between two Africans fighting colonialism, make it more useful to this inquiry.

Pause the source, jot down your thoughts and in a moment, come back and we'll share some of our answers.

Great job, well done.

You do get a sense from reading that the colonial rule meant lots of broken promises.

Witbooi's warning is that they will regret their actions.

They will never be allowed to keep their independence.

Colonial rule of course was divisive at well.

It played on divisions between the different groups within Africa, often encouraging them to fight each other, so that all will weaker and in the longer run, easier to rule.

This is a particularly important source for us, you're quite right to point this out.

Whilst Witbooi obviously had an agenda, his words are his own.

He was capable of expressing himself lucidly well in writing and most importantly, he's writing to a fellow African who's facing colonialism.

Therefore the source has not changed to suit white audience or reinterpreted by colonists.

We can be sure that that boy really did have these concerns.

And so this source is a great utility to uncovering the realities of experiences that those faced by Empire were having.

Cultural imperialism then let us return to that notion.

Europeans imposed Christianity, language such as English and French, and of course took and divided ancestral lands as well as destroying power structures.

All of these were experiences of life under Empire.

And these experiences were de-stabilizing for African societies.

They continue even today to create challenges for the people who live with the legacies of colonialism.

It's that time in the lesson where you need to complete the comprehension questions.

You've done very well so far, pause the video, have a go at these, when you're ready, you can unpause the video, come back and we'll share some of our answers.

Another incredible job, you've done so well to work with those difficult, interesting, and engaging sources in uncovering experiences of those living in imperial colonialism.

Let's see what you got an answer to these really interesting and important questions.

So first of all, which Nigerian author wrote a novel Things Fall Apart? Fantastic, that's right, it was Chinua Achebe.

You could expand on just the name and say that Achebe wrote the novel, imagining the early experiences of colonialism among Nigerian peoples.

What does a missionary attempt to do? Of course the missionaries are those people in Achebe's book that we see first encountering those peoples living in Nigeria.

Well, if you said they tried to convert people to Christianity, that's outstanding I'm extremely impressed.

That's quite correct.

You can go further and explain that missionaries went with the support of the European empires and that actually many of them thought they were doing a service to the colonised by bringing them the word of God.

But in reality, they were forcing their culture on people under imperial rule and destabilising their societies as a result of that.

Why did the Europeans want to bring Christianity to Africa? Partly because they thought it would make people there easier to rule, if they have the same values as Europeans.

One feature of extract A that's a Achebe's novel, which a historian has to be aware of when they're using it to uncover the experience of colonialism.

That's quite right, it's a novel, it's not the same as a primary source or historical interpretation.

Of course you can explain and you're quite right to do so that even though this is a novel, Achebe was born in the area which the novel is set, and under colonial rule, not at the same time as the events of the novel, but Achebe knew the past of this nation well, and so we can use this as a historian to uncover the experiences of people in the early colonial period, as long as we're careful in the way that we read.

One feature of source B, which historian has to be aware of when using it to uncover the experience of colonialism.

Well, if you said it's author was experiencing it first hand, implying this a very useful source, you quite right.

That's exactly what we want as historians.

Those firsthand accounts from people living under Empire.

Not only might you have said it was the source written by someone who is experiencing colonialism, but crucially it was written by one person experiencing colonialism to another.

A warning between two African chiefs and therefore it wasn't modified for a colonial audience.

So we can really put a lot of faith in its contents as being a legitimate descriptor of the experience of life under Empire.

What can we uncover from the extract and the source that we've studied this lesson, about experiences of living under colonialism? Well done, you've got it.

People did experience a loss of power and of culture when they faced for example, the introduction of missionaries and the destabilisation of their traditional political structures.

You might have said that whether you were an ordinary African or a chieftain, of great importance the experience of colonial rule was actually often quite similar.

Because ultimately the colonists wanted to treat all Africans as though they had to learn and take time direction from white rulers.

There was cultural imperialism and a destabilisation of these people's cultures and power structures often with only a single generation, in between colonialism and the marginalisation of African cultures.

Wow, that's impressive.

You've dealt with challenging extracts and really difficult, complex information, as well as going further in uncovering the lives of those living on that Empire and the experiences that they have.

We'd love to see your fantastic work.

So please do share it with us.

If you've got a parent or guardian using Twitter, you can use the details below.

I'll see you next lesson, goodbye.